Blue Devils drop ninth straight in loss to Croatan

South Lenoir got a little bit closer to its first East Central 2A victory under first-year head coach Tim Jenkins Friday night, but fell short in a 24-17 setback to visiting Croatan in the penultimate league game for both squads.

DEEP RUN — South Lenoir got a little bit closer to its first East Central 2A victory under first-year head coach Tim Jenkins Friday night, but fell short in a 24-17 setback to visiting Croatan in the penultimate league game for both squads.

The Blue Devils dominated in virtually every aspect of the game — rushing yards (215-178), passing yards (39-18) and punt average (34.3-33.3).

“I’m proud of our boys — this is the style of football I hope we’ll be playing at South Lenoir for a long time,” Jenkins said. “They played hard tonight; they could have just as easy came out here and laid down but they had a good week of practice and gave everything tonight. … Tonight is an indication of what we’re going to be able to do in the future.”

On the flip side, though, South Lenoir also led in two areas that Jenkins didn’t approve: penalties (eight for 69 yards to Croatan’s six for 55) and ejections (two for SL, none for the Cougars).

“This game should really hurt us a lot, not because of we really lost but because of the little tiny things I’ve been talking about all year long,” Jenkins said.

Croatan, which wraps up its regular season at home next week against Richlands, took a 7-0 lead on its first offensive play from scrimmage on a 13-yard touchdown run by Marshall Judon. The Judon score was set up by a recovered fumble of South Lenoir quarterback Garrett Holland on the Blue Devils’ third play of the game.

Two drives and nearly eight and a half minutes later, Dion Jones tied the game for the Blue Devils on a 9-yard run that wrapped up an eight-play, 57-yard drive.

Croatan took the lead for good on a Kyle Colburn 6-yard run with 4:31 remaining before halftime. Colburn’s TD culminated a three-play, 35-yard drive that included a nice 25-yard run by Judon that set up the score.

Croatan’s excellent field position was also set up by two South Lenoir senior players — Wayne Hall and Dakota Lynn — earning ejections for swinging their fists at Croatan players.

“If we take that touchdown away because we had two guys make some poor choices, that scoreboard might not look the way it does right now,” Jenkins said.

The game turned in the opening moments of the third quarter when Judon returned the second half kickoff 75 yards for a touchdown and a 21-10 lead. It was Judon’s first kickoff return for a score this season.

“Marshall Judon is a big-play guy for us and has been a big-play guy for us all year,” Croatan coach David Perry said. “We’ve been saying all year we’ve expected him to break one back there but he hasn’t. … (Colburn) told him this was the game to do it at halftime, and he did.”

Page 2 of 2 - Croatan’s final score might’ve been the most important — Colburn booted a 24-yard field goal that finished a 20-play, 97-yard drive that ate nine minutes and 39 seconds off the clock. The field goal gave the Cougars a 24-10 lead.

South Lenoir wasn’t through, though. The Blue Devils finished a seven-play, 70-yard drive with a Dion Jones touchdown — his second of the game — with 6:38 left in the game.

After a three-and-out, South Lenoir’s final drive of the game stalled at the Croatan 18 when the Blue Devils ran out of downs on two straight incomplete passes by Holland, the final one with 1:46 left in the contest.

Croatan ran out the clock after forcing South Lenoir’s eighth penalty of the night on third-and-2 and the Cougars, who’d suffered close losses to East Duplin and Topsail the previous two weeks, could finally celebrate.

The Cougars finished with only 196 yards of offense, including 79 yards rushing on 15 carries by Colburn and 66 yards on the ground by Judon. Kyle Hopewell completed Croatan’s lone pass to Mitchell Smith for 18 yards.

South Lenoir, which lost its ninth straight game to fall to 1-9, 0-6, had 254 yards of offense, paced by Jones’ 152 yards on 16 carries. The Blue Devils wrap up their 2012 campaign at Clinton next week.

“We played as hard and as fast as we could play (defensively) tonight,” Jenkins said. “That’s all I want from our guys.”

Bryan C. Hanks can be reached at 252-559-1074 or at Bryan.Hanks@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at BCHanks.